Tirunelveli and Madurai was
an important city of the Pandya Kingdom as it served as their capital
for sometime “If the boundary of the town is made with stone, it
will not be of aesthetic beauty and therefore boundary is fenced with
paddy field”, says a Tamil Poet about Tiru-nel-veli The town has
been surrounded on all sides by paddy fields. As such the town was called
as ‘Nelveli’ i.e., Paddy-Hedge. Since the temple in the town
is dedicated to Lord Siva’, the town around the temple was called
Tiru-nel-veli. Around 1560, the town was rebuilt by Viswanatha the founder
of Nayak dynasty who also erected many temples in it. Tirunelveli was
the earliest Pandiya’s Capital. The Nayaks ruled Tirunelveli from
Madurai during the 16th, 17th and early years of 18th Century.

Tirunelveli Area

6,810 sq. km

Tirunelveli Population

2723.988 (Census 2001)

Tirunelveli Rainfall

777.7 mm Annual

Tirunelveli Climate

Max: 37.1°C Min 22°C

Tirunelveli is culturally a very old city, as evidenced by the
findings of archaeological excavations that have been carried out
since 1840s to till-date in the outskirts of the city in
Adichanallur (now under Tuticorin district). At this site, the
archaeologists have unearthed urns[1]containing human skull,
skeleton and Urns and red and black clay vessels with some Tamil
Brahmi script on them.[2] Along with skeletal finds, husks, grains
of rice, charred rice and Neolithic Celts have also been found. More
recent excavations at this site has led to the discovery of
habitational site of the Iron Age people. Archaeologists opine that
it as 3000-3800 years old of Neolithic period.[3][4] The same has
been published in The Hindu English daily on May 26, 2004. Further,
this assured that Tirunelveli has been the abode for human
habitation from Neolithic period around 3,000 years old. Now,
Adhichanallur has been announced as an archaeological site for
further excavation and studies.[5][6] This culturally old city is
called in another name also "Nellai". In fact, the exact translation
in Tamil for paddy is "Nell". So, both the name Tiru[nel]veli or [Ne]llai
directly associates with paddy. Just in glance even on satellite
pictures, it can be seen that the city is surrounded by fertile
paddy fields enriched by a perennial river "Tamirabarani[7]". It
flows through out the year, which supplies water through various
canals to agricultural field.

It has a deep rooted history on puranical perspective to get this
name. It is said that a devotee was invited by God in his dream to
settle with his family near the Tamirabarani River. He collected
paddy from various other people as the way of begging due to famine.
And he spread out the paddy to dry under the sunlight and went for
ablution in Tamirabarani river. He prayed to Lord for rain. Suddenly
a thunder strom broke out and rained heavily. Al though his prayer
answered, he worried about the paddy he spread out to dry under the
sun light. So he ran there and what he saw was a miracle. Despite
the heavy rain, that the paddy he spread did not even get a drop of
rain or even soaked. Since then the city is called as Tirunelveli,
the meaning is like this - 'TIRU' means Respectable, 'NEL' means
paddy and 'VELI' means Fence. As having the rain become the fence
for the paddy he spread out, it is called as Tirunelveli. In other
words the city is having paddy fields as fence

In the period of the Pandian Empire, the city served as the south
capital for them. The city was the chief commercial town in the
period of Arcot Nawabs and Nayaks. They were one of the various
ruling dynasties of Tamilnadu. In fact, they called the city as "Nellai
Chemmai", cheemai means foreign developed town.[8] Tirunelveli first
came into prominence under the Pandya kings,[9] serving as their
capital for some time. It was an important city of the Chola kingdom
(c.900 – 1200)[10] and of the Vijayanagar empire. Thereafter, it
fell under the rule of local Nayaks and of the Nawab of Arcot, who
in 1781 granted its revenues and local administration to the
British. In 1801 it was annexed by the British, who governed it
until India achieved independence in 1947.

On acquisition from the Nawab of Arcot in 1801, the British named it
as Tinnevelly district though their headquarters was first located
in Palayamkottai the adjacent town, where they had their military
headquarters during their operations against the Palayakars. Two
reasons may be attributed for naming it after Tirunelveli. One is
because, it was and is the chief town of the district and the other
is that it was already called as Tirunelveli Seemai under the Nayaks
and Nawabs. Both Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai grew as the twin
towns of the district.

Apart from the above, it has one more name "Halwa City". A wheat
based sweet Halwa is very famous in Tirunelveli, which brought this
nick name . The city has Swamy Nellaiappar and Sri Kandimathi Ambal
temples, which are saivites. The city has been trifurcated in to
three administrative provinces such as Tirunelveli, Palayamkottai
and Melapalayam.

The city has become a corporation from 1989 and possesses the title
of seventh largest city in the state of Tamilnadu. Generally, the
corporation status has been given to a city according to its income
generation and the population. The city is well connected by roads.
From Madurai it is 150 km south in NH7 and 80 km north of
Kanyakumari or Cape Comerin in NH7. An NH 7A connects Tirunelveli
with Tuticorin port in 47 km and a major highway connects to Quilon,
Kerala in 150 km.

Tiruneveli has two tier flyover named as Tiruvalluvar Flyover, which
is the second longest double-decked flyover in Asia